Minister told officials to coerce Olympics app maker over costs

Digitalization minister Takuya Hirai admitted Friday he instructed officials to coerce the developer of a smartphone app for monitoring the health of foreign visitors during the Tokyo Games in regard to costs by threatening to withhold future government contracts.Hirai was reported to have told senior officials of the Cabinet Secretariat in charge of the app project in April that they "would be better off threatening" the joint venture developing the app in order to achieve cost reductions. The venture partners include major Japanese information technology firm NEC Corp."I have a strong det…READ FULL ARTICLE